what's the meaning of a pickle hanging on a christmas tree?

Question

my family has always had a pickle hanging on the tree at christmas time. i don't know why. is there some symbolic meaning of this?

Answer 1

that's an odd one to me. it could just be a silly tradition, or it could symbolize the "pickle" of a jam they'll be in after they've overspent at christmas.

Answer 2

The German Christmas Pickle Ornaments Story.
The German glass pickle ornaments are considered a special
Christmas in Germany decoration by many families where the Christmas
tree was decorated on Christmas eve.

The glass Christmas pickle ornament is always the last glass
ornament to be hung on the Christmas tree. The parents hide the glass
pickle ornament in the Christmas tree among the other German
glass ornaments. When the children were allowed to view the
Christmas tree they would begin gleefully searching for the
German glass pickle ornament. The children knew that whoever found
the glass pickle ornament first would receive an extra little gift and
would be the one to begin the unwrapping of the Christmas gifts.

Answer 3

“A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.”

Answer 4

It's actually an old-world tradition, usually stemming from Eastern European traditions where the peasants were too poor to afford shiny glass ornaments to hang on their trees.

When they immigrated to the States, they brought their traditions, and then the tradition spread to non-Eastern Europeans as a 'cool' thing to do.

For some people, it's a celebration of their heritage, for others, it's a 'cool' thing to do.

I'd bet the pickle is made of glass in your family, as hanging an actual organic pickle on your tree would just be asking for trouble (not to mention a rather nasty smell come Christmas day if you put up your tree the day after Thanksgiving like some families do)

Answer 5

I do alot I in many circumstances positioned the heavier ones on precise so any embellishes are very gentle on the backside no longer relatively inflicting any reducing of branches or embellishes under the backside of the tree, the two way basically have exciting with it there is not any incorrect or precise thank you to beautify a tree, heck you ought to apply a rose bush in case you needed!

Answer 6

I would have to say that added to the pagan worship of the tree, they must really like pickles to add it to the tree worship.

Answer 7

In
Old
World
Germany,
the last decoration
placed on the Christmas tree
was always a pickle... carefully
hidden deep in the boughs. Legend
has it that the observant child who found
it on Christmas Day was blessed with a year
of good fortune...
and a special gift!

According to some accounts, the tradition of trying to find the little ornament shaped like a pickle which was hidden deep among the green boughs on Christmas Eve, began many years ago in Laschau, Germany. As the story goes, the lucky one who found the ornament on Christmas morning would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. If a family could not afford an extra gift, the lucky finder of the pickle was rewarded by being the first to open a present. Production of blown glass Christmas Pickle ornaments began in the 1890s.

This "Old World German" tradition of "The Christmas Pickle" may be in somewhat of a "pickle" itself. Another account of the origin of this tradition is quite a "dilly". Thus far it seems to have at least some credibility among a "peck" of other explanations. In this depiction we are led to the German emigrant, John Lower, by his Great-Great-Granddaughter, Cindy. Our German tradition hence, is one more of legend than anything. Just as the legendary "Italian Pizza" is spoken of with a very heavy Chicagoan's drawl, "The Christmas Pickle" seems to have had it's beginning or was "pickled" right here in the deep south of the good old U. S. of A.

According to Cindy, John Lower was born in Bavaria in 1842. He left Germany with his family and emigrated to the United States. While fighting in the American Civil War, John Lower was captured and sent to a prison in Andersonville, Georgia. He soon fell to poor health given the poor conditions of the prison. Starving, he begged of a guard for just one pickle before resigning to his death. The guard, taking pity on him, found and gave John Lower a pickle. Lower family lore yields John's testimony that the pickle, by the grace of God, gave him the mental and physical strength to live on. After being reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree. Hence, the first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune... and a special gift, just as John Lower had experienced!

The first recorded references to the Christmas tree that is now often used to hide this infamous Christmas Pickle, dates back to the 16th Century. It was in Strasbourg, Germany (now a part of France), that families both rich and poor decorated fir trees with colored paper, fruits and sweets. The retail Christmas tree lot also dates back almost as far. In those times, older women would sell trees that were harvested from nearby forests.

The Christmas tree tradition spread through Europe and was brought to the United States by German settlers and by Hessian mercenaries paid to fight in the Revolutionary War. In 1804, U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) hauled trees from surrounding woods to their barracks at Christmas.

After the war, popularity of the Christmas tree grew and thus it proliferated throughout the United States. Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842. In 1851, Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds loaded with trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York. There he opened the first known retail Christmas tree lot in the United States.

Franklin Pierce, our 14th President, brought the Christmas tree tradition to the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony now held every year on the White House lawn. Since 1966, members of the National Christmas Tree Association have presented a beautiful, fresh Christmas tree to the President and first family. This tree is displayed each year in the Blue Room of the White House... We ponder, whether somewhere amidst its many green boughs, if it hides the "Presidential Christmas Pickle"?

Answer 8

I hope your family uses the same old dried up one, every year - rather than hanging up a new, wet, juicy, stinky one. . . eeuuwww.

Answer 9

you should ask your family because i've never heard of that

Answer 10

i have never heard of this, interesting